Taste the richness of the oolong at this tea’s base. This darker, roasted oolong presents upfront toasty notes and a hint of chestnuts. The orange is natural and balanced, but builds to a stronger citrus finish. Together, this is soft and smooth.

Yay! My Amoda Tea Box for November arrived yesterday! I’m always so excited to get this special parcel in my mailbox every month. I’m expecially excited about this package because all three teas are ones that I’ve not tried before. The first tea that I’m tasting is this Orange Oolong Tea from Aromatica Fine Teas.

The dry leaf has a very strong orange aroma. It smells as though I had just cut into a ripe, juicy orange! The scent filled the room as soon as I opened the pouch. Ordinarily, I will brew a flavored Oolong in my Breville One-Touch tea maker, but, I decided to grab my gaiwan to fully enjoy the strong, amazing orange fragrance. The tea brews up a dark yet transparent chocolate brown color and the aromatic wisps wafting out of the teacup are beckoning me to take a sip.

The first cup is very flavorful and has a nice balance between Formosa tea flavor and sweet orange notes. The tea has a pleasing earthy flavor that is slightly woodsy and warm with notes of roasted nut. There is a background note of fruit that is slightly peach-like, and I like the way this melds with the bright citrus notes.

Subsequent infusions were also quite flavorful. I found that as I continued to infuse this tea, the flavors became smoother and almost seamless. The orange notes remained a “sunny” kind of flavor in the cup, while the Oolong maintained it’s earthy, slightly nutty tones, but everything melded together in a very pleasant way.

Anne (aka the Mad Tea Artist) has celebrated her 29th birthday for many years now. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her hubby and her youngest daughter. Her oldest daughter is married and has bestowed Anne with the proud title of "Gramma" and her grandson is about the cutest boy you ever did see.
Anne started her journey with tea as a casual drinker and became more serious about her tea drinking when she realized that she couldn't drink coffee. Shortly thereafter, she started becoming obsessed with the beverage and she started creating small-batch, artisan blends of tea that she sold online as LiberTEAS. After a few years, she realized she wasn't cut out to be the sole proprietor of a business so she closed LiberTEAS and started reviewing teas online. She met Jennifer through another blog that they both reviewed for and they decided to start their own review blog. This review blog!
Throughout her journey as a tea reviewer, she discovered 52Teas and became enamored with the idea of creating a new tea every week. When the founder of 52Teas decided he wanted to move on, he offered the business to Anne but knowing that she wasn't cut out to be a sole proprietor, she instead offered the company to her oldest daughter who employs her as the Mad Tea Artist for 52Teas!

Don’t fear the strong cherry aroma, it steeps up nicely balanced with subtlejasmine and rose floral notes. You’ll still taste the earthiness of the white & green teas before the last hit of cherry that lingers.

The dry leaf of this White Cherry Tea Blend from Aromatica is extremely aromatic. As the description above suggests, it has a very strong cherry fragrance … it almost smells a bit like cough medicine. Personally, I’m not one to be put off by that, because, I kind of like cherry flavored cough medicine. It’s better than unflavored cough medicine, anyway.

But, I don’t want my cherry flavored teas to taste like cough medicine. So, I remained hopeful that the description is right … and that the tea steeps with a balanced flavor. Fingers crossed!

Wow! This tastes very much like cherry! But it doesn’t taste like a medicinal cherry flavor … it tastes like a sweet, ripe Bing Cherry, bursting with flavor! Seriously, with my first sip, it was very much like I had just bitten into a juicy cherry. YUM!

The sips that follow allow the other flavors in the cup to develop on the palate. I notice hints of jasmine in the distance. I taste the lush, “green” taste of the green tea, as well as hints of earthiness and hay from the Pai Mu Tan. The rose starts to come through after my fourth or fifth sip.

This tea definitely tastes more like a green tea than a white tea, but there is a lightness to this too, the white tea has lightened the overall flavor of the cup. The white tea is not a strong flavor, but it certainly does its part to influence the overall flavor of the cup.

The floral tones are subdued but offer a nice contrast to the sweet cherry flavor. The cherry offers a sweet overtone, but there are hints of tartness to the cup as well. The coconut is not a prominent flavor to this cup, but there is a gentle creaminess that I attribute to the coconut. I like this hint of creaminess … it adds just the right touch to the drink.

Overall, this tea blend really IS well balanced. Sweet? Sure. But there is so much more to it than just sweet cherry flavor. It is that complexity that makes this tea well worth trying.

Anne (aka the Mad Tea Artist) has celebrated her 29th birthday for many years now. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her hubby and her youngest daughter. Her oldest daughter is married and has bestowed Anne with the proud title of "Gramma" and her grandson is about the cutest boy you ever did see.
Anne started her journey with tea as a casual drinker and became more serious about her tea drinking when she realized that she couldn't drink coffee. Shortly thereafter, she started becoming obsessed with the beverage and she started creating small-batch, artisan blends of tea that she sold online as LiberTEAS. After a few years, she realized she wasn't cut out to be the sole proprietor of a business so she closed LiberTEAS and started reviewing teas online. She met Jennifer through another blog that they both reviewed for and they decided to start their own review blog. This review blog!
Throughout her journey as a tea reviewer, she discovered 52Teas and became enamored with the idea of creating a new tea every week. When the founder of 52Teas decided he wanted to move on, he offered the business to Anne but knowing that she wasn't cut out to be a sole proprietor, she instead offered the company to her oldest daughter who employs her as the Mad Tea Artist for 52Teas!